Amazon Basin L-band SAR Mosaics for Wet and Dry Seasons

Amazon River Basin imagery comprises two L-band radar backscatter mosaics and two derived first-order texture mosaics. The dataset was created from 1,500 images collected by the JERS-1 satellite over 62-day periods during the 1995 dry season and 1996 wet season as part of the Global Rainforest Mapping Project. Data is provided as eight zip files containing four core images in both GeoTIFF and ENVI formats at a 1 km resolution.

Use Cases

• Analyzing seasonal changes in land surface moisture by comparing HH polarization backscatter values between the 1995 dry season and 1996 wet season mosaics.
• Classifying land cover types using the derived first-order texture statistical information alongside the backscatter intensity.
• Calibrating or validating contemporary SAR data models with this historical L-band baseline for the Amazon Basin.
• Studying large-scale rainforest structure and flooding dynamics using the georeferenced 1 km resolution mosaics.

Strengths

• Provides temporally distinct coverage with data from two key seasons (dry 1995, wet 1996), enabling change detection.
• Derived from a substantial source dataset of 1,500 individual JERS-1 SAR images.
• Offers multiple data products, including core backscatter mosaics and calculated first-order texture statistics.
• Available in two standard geospatial formats (GeoTIFF and ENVI) for broad software compatibility.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is limited to approximately 1 km (30 arc-sec) after resampling, which may restrict fine-scale analysis.
• Conflicting metadata exists: one source lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, while another indicates the data collection ended in 1996-06 - this suggests potential metadata errors.
• Specific column names, row counts, and original file sizes are not provided in the available descriptions.

Provenance

Source

Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1) Synthetic Aperture Radar, processed under the Global Rainforest Mapping Project (GRMP).

Collection Method

Satellite imagery collection and mosaic creation from 1,500 source images, with subsequent derivation of first-order texture statistics.

Time Range

1995-08 to 1996-06

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:02:23.628948

Geography

Amazon River Basin